A new mobile division has enabled Daisy to step into the data sector offering mobile data as a lead product. The man at the helm, Neil Gething, reveals Daisy's ambitions and strategy in the mobile arena.
Daisy Communications entered into a joint venture with Siminn (Iceland Telecom) in May 2009. As part of the deal Siminn's UK business, Aerofone UK, an independent mobile service provider for business telecoms and data solutions, was renamed and rebranded as Daisy Mobile. This mobile division is headed up by incoming Managing Director Neil Gething, founder of the successful Isis Telecommunications, a company sold to Vodafone in 2006.
Gething was attracted to Daisy by its success story and ‘bright future'. "Daisy has a strong reputation in the fixed market, built on a real commitment to customer service and back office efficiency, and the opportunity to carry that success into the mobile field was one I didn't want to turn down," said Gething. "Like most people, I knew of Matthew Riley and his profile within the telecoms industry. When I had the initial conversations with him regarding my previous experience at Isis and what he envisaged Daisy Mobile to be, it was apparent that our respective views of the world are closely aligned. He's also a very persuasive and a difficult man to say ‘NO' to!"
"I expect Daisy Mobile to be the UK's biggest producing independent mobile service provider within a year"
The Aerofone joint venture with Siminn was a good place to start executing some of these plans and shared visions. Aerofone has a good reputation and good people with a dual SP licence. "I was aware that Daisy had been looking at acquiring licences for some time and the joint venture made the Daisy Mobile proposition strong from the outset," added Gething. "In terms of our target segment and channels, we think we can cover all bases below enterprise size customers. We already have a sizeable SME customer base to whom we can cross-sell mobile. We have also acquired some great mid-size SMEs and we already have a solid account management team to grow this sector."
He noted that the indirect channel is already well established having working relationships with over 250 active business partners. "This will be a key area for us," added Gething. "Chris Burney runs a terrific team of business partner managers and they are all eager to diversify their product sets. In terms of markets and products, we have some innovative ideas. Ultimately FMC will happen and we will watch that space, but in the meantime our clear focus will be on data products and applications."
According to Gething the challenge is to replicate the success of Daisy Retail with Daisy Mobile and cross-sell into the existing base. "We now have over 35,000 business customers. This continues to grow at a healthy rate, so we don't need to look any further than this. Nobody said cracking the data market was going to be easy. We need clear propositions, good partners, and the Daisy values delivered by strong account managers and product managers. Recruitment and training will be at the heart of this."
Gething aims to grow market share by working closely with the networks. "We need solid alliances, building and selling to the networks' own business plans and engaging their vast resources to sell into our existing customers. Daisy already has the channels and a strong sales team. This team will grow quickly, supplemented by product and support specialists. We have a sizeable base to cross sell to and we anticipate delivering very healthy numbers, quickly. I wouldn't want to claim any market share goals at this stage but I'm happy to state that I fully expect Daisy Mobile to be the UK's biggest producing independent mobile service provider within a year."
Gething is equally as clear about the hot market opportunities for SMB resellers in the mobile arena. "Data, data and data - fixed and mobile. Anyone with skills in all of the above will do very nicely in the new world," he said.